"For Italy, an exporting country, the world of growing sanctions and tariffs is turning into a complicated and unfriendly world," he told the El Pa·s newspaper on Thursday. "Dialogue [with Russia] should be notably intensified to achieve the desired result," the top diplomat noted, advising not to punish Russian people.

"We also suggest that unrelenting anxieties of the EU’s northern and eastern countries because of Russia be coupled by [the concern] of its southern countries, particularly Italy, due to enormous migration flows and the instability of the zone," Milanesi specified. "We wish that the EU and NATO cared not just about their northern and eastern flanks but also about the southern one." "If Mediterranean states ask about solidarity with what is happening in the east, we would like to see same solidarity with what is happening in the south," the Italian foreign minister emphasized.